Author describes Yellowstone’s unique hydrology

To see Yellowstone with geologists Hank Heasler and Cheryl Jaworowski is to see the world’s first national park as a laboratory.

“Yellowstone is truly a magical place. And that magic is rooted in the Yellowstone volcano,” Heasler told Mary Kay Carson, author of the new “Park Scientists: Gila Monsters, Geysers and Grizzly Bears in America’s Own Backyard.”

She trooped along with the geologists as they visited Norris Geyser Basin to investigate reports that some sections were getting hotter. They checked for dangerous levels of gases and took temperature readings.

“Park Scientists” describes the basics of how Yellowstone’s unique hydrology works, the ways scientists adapt to changing conditions and how they conduct their research. Even their gear is detailed — temperature guns and probes, infrared cameras, notebooks, a psychrometer, gas detectors, heat resistant boots, wool socks and insulated pants.

“We’re here to protect Yellowstone’s natural processes,” Heasler said. “So rather than build a permanent boardwalk around a (hot) spring, we’ll continually move the boardwalk to keep everyone safe so the spring can move where it wishes.”

Odd odors, hot springs pools “the colors of pistachio and turquoise” and channels of water filled with algae and microbes make for a scene “so surreal that it feels like watching video from another planet, or going back in time to a newly born Earth,” Carson wrote.

Also in Yellowstone, “Park Scientists” profiled Mark Haroldson, a wildlife biologist and bear scientist. He told Carson life changed significantly for grizzlies when the park stopped allowing people to feed bears from their cars or at dumps.

Part of his research involves using tracking collars to see where about 600 grizzly bears roam in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

“We live capture and handle on average 80 to 90 different bears a year, and radio-collar most of the captured bears that are big enough to wear them,” Haroldson said.

The book also follows a citizen science project counting cacti and research into Gila monsters in Saguaro National Park in Arizona, as well as firefly and salamander studies in Great Smokey Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina.

A Cincinnati couple, Carson and Uhlman previously teamed up for “Emi and the Rhino Scientist” and “The Bat Scientists.”

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Inbody at 791-1490 or by email at kinbody@greatfallstribune.com.